Our School Day
Our school day starts at 8.45am, this is when the school doors open. The school day finishes at 3.15pm.
Broad Chalke Primary School is open to children for 32.5 hours per week.
Children enter the school through their own year group doors for security and safety purposes.
To ensure safety and encourage good habits of punctuality any Parent / Carer arriving after 8.55am are asked to come in through the main entrance and sign in. Children arriving after 8.55am will be marked as late.
Absences from school
Illness
If your child is too unwell to attend school, please call the school office (01722 780212) before 8.55am and leave an absence message including your child’s name, their class and the reason they are absent.
Please use this handy guide to check if your child should be in school when unwell.
Is my child too ill for school?
Preventing and controlling infections
Other Absences
The Government have made amendments to the 2006 regulations relating to leave of absence of pupils during term time.
The changes include that references relating to family holiday and extended leave as well as the threshold of ten school days has been removed. The amendments now make clear that the Headteacher may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. Therefore family holidays paid for by other family members or lower cost will not be allowed to be authorised, and doctor or dentist appointments can only be made in school time if an emergency. Emergency medical appointments within school hours must have proof of the appointment by way of an appointment card, letter, email or text from the surgery or hospital. If this cannot be provided the register will be recorded as ‘unauthorised’. The aim is to have children in school with high levels of attendance to ensure they do learn to the highest possible standard. Please be aware that any exceptional reason for leave of absence must be given in writing using the leave of absence form, which is available in the school office.
As set down by the Department for Education, penalty notices can be issued for late or unauthorised absence. In Wiltshire, Penalty Notices are issued when a pupil has had 10 or more half day sessions (equivalent to five school days) of unauthorised absence, in any 10 week school period; or one or more unauthorised absences during a public exam, assessment or test (where the dates have been published).
Schools are required by law to code the school attendance registers correctly. School registers are legal documents and must be completely accurate. It is a parents legal responsibility to ensure that their child is in school.